Homebuilders academy seeks to address Huntsville construction crisis

Posted Oct 07, 2019

There is a dramatic shortage of skilled workers in the construction business and the Huntsville Madison County Builders Association is starting an academy to train more workers.Joel Bissell | MLive.com

What's in the planning stages is extraordinary, the Huntsville Madison County Builders Association attempting something no other homebuilders association in the country has attempted.

They want to start their own school, to build potential into reality, to train eager hands to be productive hands in the construction world.

It's known as the North Alabama Homebuilders Academy and plans are for the first classes to begin in January.

So what's the crisis in all this? Let Barry Oxley, executive director of the Huntsville builders group, explain.

"Right now in our country, there is a 400,000 person deficit in employment for trades," he said. "In five years, that's going to triple to 1.2 million deficit of people working in skilled trades. And skilled trades, we're talking about home building, framing, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, masonry, gas, painting, sheet rock repair, landscaping, all those things. Anything you look at in the home is done by our industry. And we have a worker shortage across the board for all of it."

And …

“Our average home builder (nationally) is 57 years old,” Oxley said. "We know for every one coming in, there are three leaving. They are retiring, dying or whatever else. It’s created a bigger and bigger problem. Because Huntsville and Madison County is such a huge growth area, that’s exacerbated in this area as well.

"We look at our industry and say we've been talking about it and talking about it. What can we do about it? Our association in late winter said, 'Let's do something about it. Let's start our own academy.'"

"If we don’t do something, the people who are going to suffer is the consumer," Oxley said. "It's going to take longer to come and fix things, longer to build and cost more money."

So consider the academy less a school and more a solution.

And the jobs are just waiting for trained hands.

"If you were going to say the need was based on a scale of 1 to 10, we're at over 10," Oxley said. "It's a very strong need out there."

The academy is targeting high school graduates with no desire for college – Oxley said 30 percent of high school graduates in Madison County won't be going to college -- or those who may be looking for a career and not just a job. It can be a second chance for those who need it, Oxley said.

The academy is designed to quickly give basic construction skills to its students and get them in the construction workforce. The eight-week course meets two nights a week while a four-week course meets four days a week. Classes will be held at a facility near University Drive and Pulaski Pike.

And graduates can start jobs making about $15 per hour, Oxley said, and start on a career path to possibly starting their own business in maybe 10 years. Put another way, a high school student could be their own boss by the time they are 30 without college debt.

"Once they get better at their jobs, they can start making more and more money," Oxley said. "If you know you're not going to college, go into home building trades because you can make a solid living. Get your experience. Might be doing some dirty jobs here and there for first four or five years.

"Get 10 years under your belt and start your own plumbing or electrical company."

The concept is based on a similar academy in Denver called the Colorado Homebuilding Academy. It was started by a homebuilder who needed help and grown into a model for the Huntsville academy. In fact, a group from Huntsville visited the Colorado school in August and will be using its curriculum.

They also learned best practices and among those is hiring a strong student recruiter.

"We're going to have somebody, that is their main job to go out in high schools and tell people about this," said Matt McCutcheon, director of government affairs and workforce development for the Huntsville association.

Oxley said the Huntsville builders expected a first-year budget "north of $600,000" for the academy. But for qualified students – which includes passing a drug test – there will be no charge to attend.

The Huntsville association is seeking public funds to supplement support already pledged for the project – reaching out to the city councils in Huntsville and Madison as well as the Madison County Commission and available state grants.

Largely, though, the academy is sustaining itself from contributions from the construction community, Oxley said.

"It's really going to be our industry supporting our industry," he said. "It's truly an investment in the future. We're training these folks to get the skills that – if they are still working -- and in five or 10 years, they are running their own companies that's going to keep our area growing."

A publicity push is planned for later this month to raise awareness about the academy and enroll the 15 students in each class.

“If we could train 200 people in the first year, I think we would be very excited about that,” Oxley said.

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